Alaska News

Pricey rats removed, pirate ship Bangun Perkasa crawls toward eventual fate

The Bangun Perkasa is still in Unalaska, as it crawls through the legal process to determine its eventual fate. Nobody owns the pirate fishing boat right now, but it's expected to become federal property, as forfeiture proceedings continue in District Court in Anchorage. It was seized by the US Coast Guard last year for illegal high seas driftnetting.

Nobody came forward to claim the vessel, despite advertising appeals in several newspapers including the Asian Wall Street Journal, said attorney Joshua Freeman of the US Attorney's office in Anchorage.

The federal government has physical but not legal custody of the vessel, said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Deputy Special Agent Matt Brown in Juneau.

'Out of commission'

"We're looking at all options to take it out of commission," Brown said. Demolishing the 140-foot vessel and recycling the scrap metal would be ideal. The government doesn't want to sell the boat, since it could return to illegal fishing, he said.

US Senator Mark Begich and Rep. Don Young, both of Alaska, have introduced legislation allowing seized vessels to be sunk by the Coast Guard in target practice exercises in waters at least 50 miles offshore.

"I don't think that would be a viable option," said Brown. Offshore disposal would risk putting hazardous materials into the marine environment, he said. "If Senator Begich wants it, I would be happy to give it to him."

Environmental concerns

But a local marine salvage specialist doesn't see any environmental hazards to deep-sixing vessels. Fuel, lubricants and other hazardous materials would be removed prior to either scrapping or sinking, said Dan Magone, owner of Magone Marine Service in Unalaska.

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Magone said the federal Environmental Protection Agency opposes offshore disposal of vessels. The agency's strict interpretation of the law makes it uneconomical for a private contractor to scuttle a boat, he said.

Environmental concerns over asbestos in the vessel's insulation wouldn't be dangerous on the sea floor he said. "There's so many barriers and stumbling blocks that it makes the law almost impossible to work with," Magone said.

While unaffordable for a private business, he said another government agency might manage to cope with the federal rules.

Expensive rats

Magone also complained about the overreaction of government officials to the rats onboard the Bangun Perkasa, requiring the ship to stay three miles offshore while the rodents were killed. His company trapped 20 rats offshore and caught one or two more when the boat arrived in port.

The more you get the government involved in these things, the more money gets wasted," Magone said. The rat extermination cost about $200,000, for the "tremendous amount of logistics and vessel charters and personnel involved."

Rat killing would would be much less expensive at dock. Instead, a tugboat was hired, and Magone's crews traveled in boats for daily de-ratting operations offshore.

If the rats came ashore, they'd have found plenty of company, he noted.

"There was a concern that the rats would hop off onto this already rat-infested island, and do something to the gene pool," Magone said.

Magone said all the rats were killed in traps.

The Coast Guard transferred custody of the Bangun Perkasa, the 140-foot fishing vessel seized for illegal high seas drift net fishing 2,600 miles southwest of Kodiak, to the NOAA Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement Alaska. About 30 tons of squid and 30 sharks were found on board, according to the Coast Guard. Freeman said that Westward Seafoods of Unalaska bought the seafood products found onboard.

The case started on Aug. 30, when Japanese authorities observed the Bangun Perkasa using drift nets on the high seas and reported it to the Coast Guard. On Sept. 7, the Coast Guard Cutter Munro arrived on scene and observed the vessel continuing to fish using an illegal drift net more than 3 miles long.

A Coast Guard team boarded the vessel where they discovered more than 10 miles of illegal drift nets on board. Through international coordination in an effort to determine the vessel's registry, the Bangun Perkasa was determined to be a stateless vessel. The Coast Guard subsequently cited it for numerous violations of U.S. law -- including the practice of illegal, unregistered and unregulated fishing -- and seized the vessel.

While being escorted to Dutch Harbor by a coordinated effort involving the crews of the cutters Munro, Midgett and Alex Haley, Coast Guard boarding teams discovered the rats.

Many agencies involved

Eventually, the vessel was taken into custody by US Customs and Immigration officials. After the crew was removed, a private contractor was hired to perform rat remediation measures to ensure the vessel satisfied U.S. requirements that prohibited the introduction of rats into U.S. ports.

The contractors also maintained the basic upkeep of the vessel and performed repairs to the ship to ensure it satisfied state and federal environmental regulations, the Coast Guard said.

"We wanted to ensure that environmental risks associated with the Bangun Perkasa were identified and addressed before it was allowed into Dutch Harbor," said Capt. Craig Lloyd, chief of response for the 17th Coast Guard District.

"We worked extensively with more than 20 of our fellow local, state, federal and tribal governments and partner agencies to identify environmental threats aboard the vessel," Lloyd said.

Jim Paulin is a reporter for the The Bristol Bay Times & The Dutch Harbor Fisherman. Used with permission.

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